Profile: Sadiq Khan First Muslim Mayor of A Major Western City

Sadiq Aman Khan was born on October 8th, 1970, and is an English politician who was appointed Mayor of London as of May 2016. Sadiq has been a Member of Parliament for Tooting from 2005 to 2016.

Sadiq Aman Khan was born in England to a working-class British Pakistani family. During his years attending the University of North London, he studied Law and graduated with a degree. He then worked as a solicitor specializing in human rights and chaired Liberty for three years. From 1994 to 2006, Khan joined Labour as he was working for a Councillor for the London Borough of Wandsworth. During his years working for the Labour government, he was appointed Minister of State for Communities by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008.

In May 2016, Khan was elected Mayor of London in the 2016 mayoral election, as he succeeded Conservative Party Mayor Boris Johnson. On May 9th, 2016, he resigned as MP for Tooting. Khan is the first ever Muslim to become mayor of a western major capital and Khan holds the largest personal mandate of any politician in the history of the United Kingdom as well as the third largest personal mandate in the whole of Europe

Early life

Khan was born in Tooting, South London and is the eight child a Sunni Muslim family of Pakistani immigrants.

His parents moved to England from Pakistan shortly after Khan’s birth. His father, Amanullah Khan, worked as a bus driver for over 25 years and his mother, Sehrun, was a seamstress.

Khan and his family lived in a three-bedroom council flat on the Henry Prince Estate in Earlsfield. During his early years, he attended Fircroft Primary School and then Ernest Bevin School (now Ernest Bevin College), a local comprehensive. He was very good in math and the sciences at A-level, and he hoped to be a dentist. But one of his teachers recommended that he studied law due to his argumentative personality. The teacher’s recommendation, along with the American television programme called L.A. Law, motivated him to do so. Subsequently, he enrolled himself in the University of North London to pursue his career.

During an interview with him, Khan reported that: “I was surrounded by my mum and dad working all the time, so as soon as I could get a job, I got a job. I got a paper round, a Saturday job – some summers I laboured on a building site.” The family continues to send money to relatives in Pakistan, “because we’re blessed being in this country.” Living in London has come along with its cons as the Khan family often encountered racism. He worked part-time at department store Sloane Square whilst he was attending Law school.

Mayor of London (2016 candidacy)

Mr. Khan declared his intention to run for the London mayoral election in May 2015. He won in September, polling 37.5% of the first round vote with Dame Tessa Jowell coming in second place at 29.7%. Khan took 58.9% of the voted in the final round against Jowell, who gained 41.1%.

Sadiq Khan made a pledge to freeze all London’s Tube, train and bus fares for four years if he won the elections. The total cost was estimated to be over £450m over four years. However, sources contradicted that statement by stating that the actual cost would be £1.9 billion. They believed Khan had not considered “increasing ridership over the Business Plan (passenger numbers are rising by 5 per cent every year) and there will be new fares revenue from Crossrail when it opens in 2018/19”

He was officially elected as Mayor in a multi-faith ceremony held in Southwark Cathedral. Khan’s first public appearance as mayor was at a Holocaust memorial ceremony in a rugby stadium in North London. It was on May 9th, 2016 that he officially took office.

Personal life

In 1994, Sadiq Khan married Saadiya Ahmed, a fellow solicitor, whom he had two daughters, named Anisah and Ammarah with. He was also a chairman of the Fabian Society, remaining on its Executive Committee.

Khan is a Sunni Muslim and regularly prays and attends Al-Muzzammil Mosque in his hometown, Tooting.

Awards and nominations

Khan was nominated for the Politician of the Year Award at the British Muslim Awards twice (2013 and 2015). He later won the award in 2016.